A Scary Start to the New Year

I was sent home from the hospital on Saturday night with a whole load of medicines. On Monday I still wasn't feeling much better, I was still having trouble breathing. I felt like I needed some antibiotics cause I was coughing up some funny coloured things (the hospital I went to on the Saturday night had thought I was having an allergic reaction so hadn't given me any).

So one of the girls at TLC, Zoe, decided to take me to her GP. This GP was apparently really good and was located on the fancy side of Joburg. When we got there the GP wouldn't see me because she said I was too sick and needed to go straight to hospital. So we went to the hospital close to there, which was apparently the best hospital in Joburg. It was a private hospital and was pretty fancy. It looked just like the new part of Royal North Shore Hospital back home. 

I went straight into one of the beds in the Emergency department as soon as I got there. I guess they didn't like the sound of my chest. Zoe had to wait in the waiting room. It was pretty scary, I have never really been in hospital before (except when I broke my arm), so coming to a foreign hospital pretty much by myself was probably high up on the list of things I never ever want to do again. There was like 4 people in the room, one was putting in an IV the other putting stuff down my throat, another taking bloods and another person doing an ECG. 

I then got sent down for a chest X-ray. Zoe was allowed to come with me, which was good.  People kept coming up to me with eftpos machines saying I needed to pay. Apparently cause I was a foreigner I was going to have to pay through the roof. I had been there 1 hour and I had already had to spend $300 just on the blood tests and X-rays.

I was soon told I needed to be admitted. Before I could be admitted though I apparently needed to pay again. They wanted me to pay for the time I had been in the Emergency Department and then a deposit on the cost of being admitted for the night. It was over $1000 Australian. I almost died. 

I was admitted into the acute critical care ward, I was well enough to just be on the ward but there wasnt enough beds. I was a bit annoyed though cause it meant that I had to be connected to all these different machines and the lights had to be on and all I wanted to do was sleep! 

I was finally seen by a doctor who said I had bronchitis which was developing into pneumonia, and that see wanted to give me IV antibiotics and other drugs to prevent it from developing into complete pneumonia. I asked if I could go home. She said no. 

I really didn't like being in hospital. They kept giving me medicine and I had no idea why they where giving it to me. They gave me something in my IV and then said that it could cause diabetes so they would need to check my blood sugar every hour. I have no idea why they gave it to me, I would have much preferred to go without it if those where the possible side effects. 

Because I was in Acute Care, visitors where only allowed at very specific times, making it hard for people from TLC to come visit. 

I think the worst thing was that my phone was dead, and because I hadn't expected to come to hospital I had no way of charging it, and even if I did I didn't have any credit on my sim. So I couldn't call home and let them know that I was in hospital. 

The nurses where really lovely! In critical care it 1 nurse between 2 patients. My nurse called me baby, cause I was the same age as her daughter. Her name was Violet and she was a really lovely black lady, who gave me lots of hugs. Violet called the lady in the bed next to me, that she was also caring for, “old racist white grandma”, because she was just that. She was in her 80s and had broken her hip and was waiting for surgery. In the middle of the night she was uncomfortable so Violet went to roll her over, and she refused to be toughed by her because, and I quote, “It shouldn't be legal for someone of your skin colour  to be able to touch me. I didn't pay good money to come to a private hospital to be touched by a women like you”. Whenever Violet helped me I always told her how much I appreciated what she was doing for me, because she was doing a great job.

I woke up at 4am when someone jabbed my in the bum with a needle. I just wanted to go home. 

The accounts man came by early in the morning saying that I would need to pay more. My insurance company couldn't guarantee payment to them over the phone cause they where all the way in Australia, so they where wanting me to pay up front and I was running out of money fast. I still couldn't get onto my parents and I hadn't looked closely enough at the fine print in my insurance documents so I didn't really know what I had been covered for, so  it was pretty overwhelming when the accountant was saying that it would cost me another $1000 per day to be at the hospital.

The doctor told me she wanted me to stay at least another 2 nights. I cried and told her I couldn't afford it and I just wanted to be back at TLC. She said she didn't want to, but that she would discharge me if I followed her treatment plan completely at home. I was so thankful. 

Later that day I was discharged. I am now back home at TLC, in the cottage that has become my home. I feel really good being home, someone went to the shops for me and bought me a tone of fruit and veg, so I have just been powering up on it. My mum has always said that you heal from what you put into your body, and eating nothing but raw veg and fruit is doing me wonders. 

I am glad I came out of hospital, it feels a lot less stressful. I am still pretty sick, but I can see myself starting to get better. 

I am really thankful for the 2 days that I spent in the hospital. Like in Australia, there are private and public hospitals in South Africa. I am yet to step foot into a public hospital here but from what I have been told from the people who live here is that you go there as a last resort. That they are ridiculously overcrowded. And that it is really easy to slip down the cracks. With private hospitals being so expensive here, apparently many people die because they are unable to access the medical treatment they need. 

What makes me shiver is how bad the medical treatment is for children who have been abandoned, like the little babies that I have been caring for. Like I said I have never been to a public hospital, so I am only going from what I have been told by people who work here at TLC, who go to the local public hospital frequently to pick up new babies who we are to care for. Apparently there is often only 1 nurse to 20 - 40 newborn abandoned babies. They aren't held and when they cry no one listens. The only time they are touched is when medical procedures are done to them. In some hospitals, they apparently aren't even in cots, they lie in metal crates, often without a blanket. They are vulnerable, and have no one on their side fighting for them. 

If you are a praying person, I would love pray. That I will be back up, running and singing with the kids soon. But also pray for those who don't have an army of people back home praying for them. The people who cant afford food, let alone pay $1000s of dollars a day to get medical treatment. Or for the little abandoned babies who are extremely vulnerable and dont have anyone fighting for them. Or pray for something bigger. For someone bigger. For someone who can over turn this inequality and make the word right again. Pray for Jesus, that he will come back soon and bring the cure for all the crying, mourning, sickness and pain that is in this world.